my water is suddenly brown

[grv]

Dang it! Brew day scheduled this weekend and as I filled the sink to shave this morning, the water was brown. Town says it may take a few days to clear.

I'm thinking of grabbing some Primo or RO water from the store so I don't have to cancel. I have lactic acid on hand to adjust pH down, and something (need to check when I get home) on hand to raise pH which I've never had to do.

Any thoughts on what I should do at this point? I've looked at the primer sticky, but if all I can get is that Primo stuff, I'm not sure that it's pure RO. I think they add some stuff from what I've read, but there's not a lot of detail on their site.

Thanks for any suggestions!

 

[Epimetheus]

High iron is NG for beer, brown in municipal water supplies usually means rust, not organics. I would get bottled water.

 

[grv]

Thanks. I just picked some up. All they had was the Primo, so knowing it's already got some additions in it, I will probably start with it as-is, and take a pH reading 10 minutes in to see if I need to adjust.

 

[neo71665]

Anytime we have a fire or do flow tests we break loose rust in the lines and end up with brown water for a few days. Pretty common during summer and fall when idiots start brush fires burning stuff in their yard round here. Got bad enough I put a house filter in.

 

[orangehero]

Primo is very soft water (33 TDS).

http://www.primowater.com/PrimoNew/files/92/92ac9e80-5937-4ce2-8a8f-666816d8aed3.pdf

 

[grv]

Anytime we have a fire or do flow tests we break loose rust in the lines and end up with brown water for a few days. Pretty common during summer and fall when idiots start brush fires burning stuff in their yard round here. Got bad enough I put a house filter in.

I'm thinking maybe we live in the same town...

Primo is very soft water (33 TDS).

http://www.primowater.com/PrimoNew/files/92/92ac9e80-5937-4ce2-8a8f-666816d8aed3.pdf

Thanks for the link. Now I can figure out what I'm getting into!

 

[grv]

So I ran across a YouTube video from a guy who had sent Primo water to Ward labs. According to his report, it looks like these are the useful #'s if plugging data into EZ Water, Bru'N Water, etc.:

Sodium (Na): 2ppm
Potassium (K): <1 ppm
Calcium (Ca): 6 ppm
Magnesium (Mg): <1 ppm
Total Hardness (CaCO3): 19 ppm
Nitrate (NO3-N): 0.2 ppm
Sulfate (SO4-S): 1 ppm
Chloride (Cl): 10 ppm
Carbonate (CO3): <1 ppm
Bicarbonate (HCO3): 6 ppm
Total Alkalinity (CaCO3): 5 ppm

EZ Water doesn't have places for all those numbers, but when I enter the ones it is looking for, and choose the 8 gallons I need for BIAB mash, loading in the grain bill, it looks like I can hit my pH at 5.51 and get the desirable water profile by adding 3 grams of Gypsum, 5 grams of Calcium Chloride, and 3 grams of Epsom Salt.

I guess it's off to the HB shop to pick some of those salts up before brew day. Here's hoping it goes well!!

 

[neo71665]

I'm thinking maybe we live in the same town...

As a member of the fire dept all I can say is I'm sorry, we don't have any control over the water pipes, and remember next house we save and turn the water brown might be yours.:fro:

 

[grv]

As a member of the fire dept all I can say is I'm sorry, we don't have any control over the water pipes, and remember next house we save and turn the water brown might be yours.:fro:

For which I am truly grateful! We support the volunteer fire department in our town, and have family members in the "professional" ranks in the city near us. Can't imagine how y'all do what you do. I'll take brown water over a smouldering hole any day!